Historicon 2015

Gencon 2015

The KickStarter to release Wave 2 of Ral Partha’s Chaos Wars has been a great success.

Thank you to the friends and associates that have so generously contributed to this effort:Battlebards, Fat Dragon Games, the talented sculptors, our painters, artists, and demo people, for their time and talents.

And most of all thanks to you, our backers, without whom none of this would be possible. Thank you for helping us to keep the spirit of Ral Partha alive and well.

There is much planned for the rest of the year.Please take a look around our webpage, consider joining the forums, and keep an eye open.We have to do some work to finalize the kickstarter, but then there will be a lot of new content here.

We are very happy to share the news that our plans for the second kickstarter have grown to not only re-release many classic Ral Partha Dwarves, Troglodytes, and Undead; but will also include the release of several previously unreleased miniatures, and many completely new and unique sculpts.

CLASSIC RE-RELEASES

*More than 20 of Tom Meier’s classic Dwarf sculpts from the ranges:02-xxx Fantasy Collector Series and 01-xxx Personalities and Things That Go Bump In the Night.

*2 Types of Skeletal Cavalry, a previously unreleased Skeletal Javelineer, and 4 different Wraith Cavalry sculpts.These come with a variety of suitable mounts, including a Skeletal Horse, 2 different Zombified Horses, a Nightmare, a Hellhound, and a Flying Lizard.

*12 different Necromancers and 12 different Witches (In Chaos Wars, both of these types can be fielded as powerful infantry units that can cast spells and raise the dead).Both units feature the work of Tom Meier, Dennis Mize, Julie Guthrie, and Bob Charrette.One of the Witches is a previously unreleased ‘Night Hag’ sculpt by Julie Guthrie.Three of the Necromancers are from the hard to find All-American Series.

*A mix of 19 different Character models for Wights, Liches, and various other Undead Heroes.One of these is a previously unreleased Arabian Mummy.

NEW SCULPTS

We have enlisted several talented Ral Partha alumni to expand our ranges; specifically Dave Summers, John Winters, and Julie Guthrie.

Some of these new releases will be available in the kickstarter immediately, and some will be unlocked as Stretch Goals during the funding period.

Among the new releases are:

*A range of 12 different Fantasy Zombies:An Arthurian Human Zombie, a Sea Elf, a Dwarf, a Goblin, an Orc, a Ratling, a Gnoll, a Troglodyte, a Halfling, a Greek-Type Human, an Amazonian, and a Wood Elf Zombie.

*A Large Dwarf Blimp, with room for a small crew and options for swivel gun sponsons, a small cannon, organ gun, flame cannon, ballista, or ram.

*Several Mummies, in various poses.

*Dwarf Bear Cavalry, featuring riders in Plate Armor, Chainmail, Scalemail, and a Female Rider.Two different types of armored bears, one in chainmail, one in plate.

Generic Add-Ons:Accessory Sets:Graveyard, Tomb, Treasure Vault, and Sorcerer/Witch’s Den.The Orc War Machine will finally be available for purchase as a separate item.

STRETCH GOALS

On top of the new sculpts that will be Stretch Goals, several classics will be re-released, and Free items will be made available as we unlock more levels.There will be approximately one Stretch Goal every $2,000, starting at the $8,000 mark.Among these are:

*A Giant Spider (that look great on their own, and also work great with the Goblin Cavalry from the previous kickstarter)

*Two different sets of Elf Reinforcements (additions to the figures from the first Kickstarter), all Tom Meier sculpts; 2 Archers, 1 Swordsman, 1 scout, one Cavalry Lancer, one Cavalry Greatsword.

*Two different sets of Orc Reinforcements (additions to the figures from the first Kickstarter), all Tom Meier sculpts; 4 Swordsmen, and 4 with Axes and Maces.

*A set of Lesser Goblin Reinforcements (additions to the figures from the first Kickstarter), all Tom Meier sculpts; 1 with Sword Shield and Pelt, 1 with Halberd, and 1 with Bow.

*A War Dog by Julie Guthrie, that was originally either extremely limited release, or completely unreleased.

*A set of Goblin Reinforcements (additions to the figures from the first Kickstarter), all Tom Meier sculpts; 3 Different Goblin Swordsmen.

*3 of Tom Meier’s Dwarves from Ral Partha’s original range: Wizards, Warriors, and Warlocks.In Chaos Wars, we suggest using them as ‘Dwarf Sentinels’, shock troops carved from stone and animated with rune magic.

*Re-Releases of the Ral Partha tabletop games Cavern’s Deep and Witch’s Cauldron.(brought back by popular demand).

*Additions to the Greater Troglodyte range, including 4 Spearmen, 4 Warriors, 3 Bowmen, and 2 Land Dragon Cavalry, all based on the original designs of Tom Meier.

*A re-released set of Richard Kerr’s Doom Thumpers.12 Different Sculpts.

*For the Troglodytes, the release of a Sauropod that was previously only available as a convention exclusive.

*If we hit the $100,000 mark, we will release a brand new sculpt, a large Skeletal Dragon.Intention is for this to have a poseable lower jaw, neck, and tail.

*If we go beyond the $100,000 mark, we have a really exciting plan to commission new sculpts, and kickstarter backers will get to pitch the concepts and then vote on which ideas get sculpted.More details on this will be forthcoming if we get close to the mark.

HOW IT WILL WORK?

The Goal is this:Provide a simpler experience than the first kickstarter, but provide even more options.

Instead of multiple reward levels, this time there will only be 1.

The basic reward level will get you a copy of the new Vampire Queen sculpt by Julie Guthrie.

In the body of the kickstarter will be 137 different optional Add-Ons.Among these are Assortments and Army Deals similar to the contents of our first kickstarter, specific Regiment sets, and various additional War Machines, Monsters, and units, each with a simple flat dollar price (to make calculation easier).

The 46 different Stretch Goals will be listed below that, and they will be marked as ‘unlocked’ as we reach their goals.

Simply look thru the choices available and add up the total price.When you go thru the process of selecting your reward, simply enter the price that you calculated.Once the funding period ends, a survey will be sent around to everyone, and you simply select the SKUs for the items you wish to receive.If there is any discrepancy in the dollar amounts between what you have pledged, and the total price, we will resolve it then.

Shipping will be determined by the total cost of the pledge (with us approximating the shipping weight based on price) and location.

So in the end, you are simply putting together a shopping list, and inputting the price.We don’t think it can get much easier than that.As you can see, this is a larger project than the first kickstarter, but at the same time, we learned a lot of best practices from our first Chaos Wars Kickstarter, and we are confident that we can handle this.

A BETTER LOOKING KICKSTARTER

The one major complaint that we saw last time had nothing to do with our miniatures.However, many people disliked the quality of the photos that we provided.As we said before, our effort is mainly directed at the miniatures themselves, not the flashy-ness of the kickstarter.But we do want to show off the miniatures in a way that accurately shows their detail and the high quality of the sculpting.So we have ran an extra set of masters and are in the process of blackwashing them all.We have also found a volunteer that is very skilled with a camera, and the difference is breathtaking.

WHAT ALL THIS MEANS?

The sculptors are at work on the new miniatures, but good work takes time.We also feel that in the previous kickstarter, we did not get enough word out about the project to do it justice.We are very happy with where everything sorted out in the first kickstarter, but we have received dozens emails from people who missed the first kickstarter.We would like to correct that.

Therefore, we are happily delaying the launch of the kickstarter, to allow for the sculptors to complete their work, and give us a chance to pre-promote this next wave.Based on the time it takes the sculptors, we hope to launch the kickstarter funding period sometime in late March or early April.However, if a bunch of sculpting comes in the door right away, we will launch it sooner.

WE WOULD LIKE YOUR HELP

The better the upcoming kickstarter does, the more new sculpts we can commission, and eventually release.The more exposure the kickstarter gets, the more people we get playing the game.Our desire is to release more new sculpts and to grow the player base of the game.You can help us with that in the following ways:

4. Write up a comment about the Chaos Wars and share it on a wargaming forum. Include a link to our site.

5. Paint your miniatures and share those photos on www.Ral Partha.com, Facebook, and everywhere else that someone might see it

6. Become a Demo Team member and help us spread the game to small conventions and local game stores across the country.

WHAT KIND OF NEW SCULPTS IN THE FUTURE?

We have a long list of weird and unique minis planned:a range of at least 12 different Werewolves, Heavily Armored Dwarves, Armored Gnolls, a range of Dryads, Vampire Infantry, Wind Lords in flight (Winged Humanoids), over 32 different war machines, and much more.

We also want to add a minimum of one figure FROM EVERY RACE IN OUR LINE for each of the following concepts:

* Female fighters

*Handgunners and Crossbowmen

*War Machine Crew

*Plague Victims

*Zombies

*Skeletons with armor and cloth remnants

And more…

We are stretching a bit to cover the down payments on all of the new sculpts for this kickstarter.The more successful this upcoming kickstarter is, the more new figures we will be able to release in the future.

Together, we can make this project a success.We hope you’ll join us for the ride.

We funded in just over 8 hours... doubled our funding goal in just over 20 hours... Now we are at 250% and have unlocked 6 Stretch Goals. One is set at every $2,000. Come help us unlock some more, and get more great new and classic miniatures released.